The Belgian blogging community was quite active at the PDC (Professional Developers Conference) last week in Los Angeles. Here's an overview of their PDC-related blog posts:

• Notes on Keynote Day 1 (http://blogs.bartdesmet.net/bart/archive/2005/09/13/3539.aspx)

• PDC05 Keynote (http://jelle.druyts.net/2005/09/13/PDC05Keynote.aspx)
• Keynote 2 (http://jelle.druyts.net/2005/09/14/PDC05TheSecondKeynote.aspx)
• Keynote 3 (http://jelle.druyts.net/2005/09/15/PDC05TheThirdKeynote.aspx)
• PDC05 Pre-Con: The Art Of Building A Reusable Class Library (http://jelle.druyts.net/2005/09/16/PDC05PreConTheArtOfBuildingAReusableClassLibrary.aspx)
• Static Classes And The HasShutdownStarted Property (http://jelle.druyts.net/2005/09/16/StaticClassesAndTheHasShutdownStartedProperty.aspx)

• PDC Day 1 - After the presentations (http://www.pixato.com/?p=67)
• PDC Day 2 - After the presentations (http://www.pixato.com/?p=68)
• PDC Pictures (including Office “12” pics) (http://www.pixagogo.com/6001135117)

• You know why PDC '05 is held in LA? I do! (http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/archive/2005/09/12/424925.aspx)
• Son of SmartPart: more details (http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/archive/2005/09/14/425192.aspx)

• Photos from PDC05 uploaded (http://jopx.blogspot.com/2005/09/photos-from-pdc05-uploaded.html)
• High expectations for PDC05 concerning SharePoint and MCMS (http://jopx.blogspot.com/2005/09/high-expectations-for-pdc05-concerning.html)
• .Net Language Integrated Query (http://jopx.blogspot.com/2005/09/net-language-integrated-query_14.html)
  Windows Workflow Foundation and SharePoint (http://jopx.blogspot.com/2005/09/windows-workflow-foundation-and.html)
• Windows Vista at PDC05 (http://jopx.blogspot.com/2005/09/windows-vista-at-pdc05.html)
• Office 12 - you got it first at PDC (http://jopx.blogspot.com/2005/09/office-12-you-got-it-first-at-pdc.html)
• Enhancements in SharePoint V3 (http://jopx.blogspot.com/2005/09/enhancements-in-sharepoint-v3.html)
• IBF has a new brother, here comes BDC (http://jopx.blogspot.com/2005/09/ibf-has-new-brother-here-comes-bdc.html)

• Live from PDC (http://blog.u2u.info/DottextWeb/peter/archive/2005/09/14/9036.aspx)

• Pack PDC 2005 ! (http://blogs.developpeur.org/redo/archive/2005/09/13/11160.aspx)
• Parfois... (http://blogs.developpeur.org/redo/archive/2005/09/13/11199.aspx)
• Introducing LINQ by Paul Vick !!! (http://blogs.developpeur.org/redo/archive/2005/09/14/11205.aspx)
• Atlas Unleashed... by Scott Guthrie (http://blogs.developpeur.org/redo/archive/2005/09/14/11206.aspx)
• Quand mono rime avec zéro ! (http://blogs.developpeur.org/redo/archive/2005/09/14/11214.aspx)
• Première journée PDC ... Que du bonheur !!! (http://blogs.developpeur.org/redo/archive/2005/09/14/11249.aspx)
• Nouveautés annoncées : C#3, VB9, LINQ Project (http://blogs.developpeur.org/redo/archive/2005/09/15/11253.aspx)
• Anders Hejlsberg, Just do it !!! (http://blogs.developpeur.org/redo/archive/2005/09/15/11257.aspx)
• Visual Basic .NET 9 : Future Directions in Language Innovation (http://blogs.developpeur.org/redo/archive/2005/09/15/11310.aspx)
• Paul Vick, Just do it (Part2) !!! (http://blogs.developpeur.org/redo/archive/2005/09/15/11312.aspx)
• C# 3.0 Language Enhancements + Chat C# 3.0 le 22 septembre !!! (http://blogs.developpeur.org/redo/archive/2005/09/15/11315.aspx)
• Après la première journée... la suite : Acrylic, Sparkle, Quartz, XAML, Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF) ... (http://blogs.developpeur.org/redo/archive/2005/09/16/11321.aspx)
• Migrez vos applications de .NET 1.x vers .NET 2.0 (http://blogs.developpeur.org/redo/archive/2005/09/18/11404.aspx) 

• Arrived at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2005 (http://www.wiver.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,fb997e2e-dfc1-4f82-8af0-82ed9bb277aa.aspx)
• Be Ready for the Wave (http://www.wiver.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,1424b21d-04f7-4e28-a65a-22659be84f04.aspx)

• Windows Vista UX Guide available (http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/davidb/archive/2005/09/12/132516.aspx)
• Visual Studio 2005 Release Candidate (RC): live on MSDN (http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/davidb/archive/2005/09/12/132518.aspx)
• PDC 05 - 1: ASP.NET 2.0 Pre-conf (http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/davidb/archive/2005/09/13/132525.aspx)
• PDC 05: An exciting Day 1 (http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/davidb/archive/2005/09/13/132559.aspx)
• PDC 05: Coolness and Belgian Community on stage! (http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/davidb/archive/2005/09/14/132601.aspx)
• Migrating to Team Foundation Server (http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/davidb/archive/2005/09/16/132625.aspx)

• VSTO 2005 developers and Office 12 (http://blog.u2u.info/DottextWeb/patrick/archive/2005/09/12/8946.aspx)
• VSTO 2005 Pre-Conf and the rest of day 2 (http://blog.u2u.info/DottextWeb/patrick/archive/2005/09/13/8992.aspx)
• ‘Son of the SmartPart’ Technology Preview (http://blog.u2u.info/DottextWeb/patrick/archive/2005/09/13/9033.aspx)
• Where's my menu? (http://blog.u2u.info/DottextWeb/patrick/archive/2005/09/14/9107.aspx)
• SharePoint Day at PDC (http://blog.u2u.info/DottextWeb/patrick/archive/2005/09/15/9142.aspx)
• CAML vNext (http://blog.u2u.info/DottextWeb/patrick/archive/2005/09/15/9146.aspx)
• Reflecting on PDC (http://blog.u2u.info/DottextWeb/patrick/archive/2005/09/17/9172.aspx)

Did I miss a blog post from a Belgian somewhere? Feel free to leave a comment to have this rectified...

A couple of weeks ago, Ritchie Houtmeyers started as the new IT Pro Audience Manager at Microsoft Belgium & Luxembourg. He is responsible for running the TechNet program in Belgium and Luxembourg. Ritchie is already for quite some time at Microsoft where he worked as a technical specialist on several server products.

You can read his blog (currently only one post though) at http://blogs.technet.com/rho_weblog.

Blatantly copied from David Boschmans's blog:

... Huge was my suprise when Mike Ammerlaan introduced the "Son of the SmartPart" aka SmartPart version 2. If you are wondering what this is all about check the Son of the SmartPart's post with details at http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/archive/2005/09/14/425192.aspx. I am amazed to see that a community tool driven by a very smart Belgian guy is picked by the Microsoft WSS teams at Microsoft Corp. and is considered as "the way" to make it possible to host ASP.NET 2.0 Web Parts or user controls in the current version of Windows SharePoint Services. So congrats Jan and keep up the great community work or as Mike Fitzmaurice blogs it "Rock on, guys!".

Well done, Jan and Patrick...

I just encountered the following on the ASP.NET Development Center. Web developers, here you go:

Watch presentations on ASP.NET 2.0 from the experts that know it best. We have dozens of hours of video to help you learn ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Web Developer.

• Scott Guthrie walks you through the new features in ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005
• Learn Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition with Bob Tabor of LearnVisualStudio.net
• Learn ASP.NET 2.0 with Interactive Computer Training
• Learn ASP.NET 2.0 with Jeff Prosise of Wintellect
• TechEd 2005 presentations

Just a quick note that you can all mark your agenda's and make sure you make no appointments on November 10! Because November 10 is the date that we will launch Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 in Belgium. Save the date!

More information will be available on the official Microsoft Belgium website soon, but now you already now the date...

Update: I'm not going to spoil the surprise by already giving his name, but we managed to have a fabulous, fantastic, superb keynote speaker for the event. (No, it's not me ;)) Let me give you some teasers:

• He works at Microsoft Corporation
• His job title sounds good (well, that is according to me)
• He's part of the Developer Division
• He has 2 kids
• He blogs

Could be anyone, right? Not! A good internet searcher should be able to get into the right direction.

Bernard Vander Beken sent me mail, informing that he and Kris Lauwereins started a new user group for .NET developers in the region of Bruges (Brugge for the Flemish). Their first meeting is on September 21st.

Visit their website (in Dutch) for more information: http://accbnet.ccat.be/.

On September 23rd, we'll be hosting an event in Brussels on Visual Studio Team System with 2 great presenters from Microsoft Corp in Redmond: Michael Leworthy and Sonal Pardeshi. Both are product managers on Visual Studio Team System and are of course very knowledgeable on this subject.

As usual with our MSDN Events in Belgium, the show can be attended for free but we do ask you to register upfront.

For more information and registration, see http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/msdn/events/2005/vsts_ontour.mspx.

Other community information:

• .NET Rocks audio talk show on VSTS
• Visual Studio Team System forums on microsoft.com

Tony Krijnen, a technical specialist at Microsoft Netherlands, had a few spare hours and created a video of the nightmares his kids put him through before he had a Media Center PC. Funny!

Patrick Tisseghem announced the start of a new user group in Belgium: the Belux Information Worker User Group (or BIWUG in short). He has been working on this start for quite some time already, so I'm glad to see the public announcement now. As the user group's name suggests, the participants will focus on information worker technologies. People that know Patrick, know that he's very knowledgeable in this subject, that he's an active community participant (blogging, speaking at conferences, participating in podcasts, writing top notch articles, ...) and that he's also a nice guy.

More information on the user group and how to join is available on Patrick's blog.

Jay, one of the students working on the Blueconnect project, created a nice summary of his adventures at the Imagine Cup 2005 in Japan.

The electronic version of De Standaard, a newspaper for the Flemish speaking part of Belgium, reports that more than 570.000 blogs have already been created in Belgium (note: this link goes to an article in Dutch and will probably redirect to a 'Subscribers only' page soon) on MSN Spaces. The other blogger site for Belgians, Skynetblogs, currently hosts 62.000 blogs (or just 11% of the total of Belgian MSN Spaces blogs). The article talks some enhancements to both blog platforms. Here are already some of the MSN Spaces Power Toys to get extra functionality on your MSN Space:

• MSN Spaces Tweak UI Power Toy
• MSN Spaces Custom HTML Power Toy
• MSN Spaces Windows Media Player Power Toy

Want to see the artwork created by the Short Film finalists of Imagine Cup? Would you love to feel the atmosphere of the World Festival? It's all possible at http://data.thespoke.com/thespoketv/. (And apparently we're also able to see the Office Designer invitational finalist presentations there - but I still have to look at them.)

For me, Imagine Cup was quite some experience too. Honestly, I was really amazed by the quality of the projects that the students delivered. Not only in software design, but also in the rendering and short film invitationals. When seeing such high quality, one can only admit that there is a bright future ahead of us with so much young talent...

I'm now going to take a few weeks of holidays, so probably there won't be many posts the next weeks.